THE FEDERATION OF THE UNITED NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL AND
AQUACULTURAL UNION (FEDERACIÓN NACIONAL SINDICAL
UNITARIA AGROPECUARIA) FENSUAGRO-CUT (COLOMBIA)
denounces the vile assassinations that have victimized various
campesino compañeros who are members of organizations affiliated
with FENSUAGRO-CUT, from the departments of Cauca, Tolima, and
Santander, committed by paramilitary groups and the military.
WHAT HAS OCCURRED
1. THE FIRST OF JANUARY, 2009, at four in the morning, while he was
talking with friends and family, the Communist leader of the district of
Montoso, Municipality of Prado, Tolima, ADOLFO TIQUE, 55 years of age,
father of six children, member of the union of farm workers in Tolima,
SINTRAGRITOL, and of the Polo Democrático Alternativa, PDA (Translators
Note: the PDA is a broad Center-Left coalition political party), was attacked
with a short, sharp weapon. With three stab wounds located in the upper
area of the chest, he was taken to the local Prado hospital, ceasing to live at
six in the morning. The hired assassin, José Vicente Acosta, alias
“Pacheco”, was detained by military units assigned to the mobile brigade
number 2 and immediately put free. The campesino was being constantly
accused by the militaries of being a supporter of the insurgency, including
being held prisoner by these slanderers in the year 2004.
2. THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, JANUARY, 2009, around 8:30 in the evening, in
the moments that they were moving from the urban center of the district of
El Palo to the village of El Alto de El Palo, JULIAN SANCHEZ, the
President of the Pro Constitution Association of the Reserva Campesina
Zone of the Municipality of Caloto, GERARDO BARON AVIRAMA Human
Rights Director for the Pro Constitution Association and member of the
South East Colombian Human Rights Network “Francisco Isaías Cifuentes”,
and JAMES BARON AVIRAMA, member of the Pro Constitution
Association, member of FENSUAGRO-CUT, were arbitrarily detained by a
military group of the Colombian state belonging to the Infantry Battalion
Number 8 “Pichincha Battalion” (under the command of Lieutenant Moreno)
who were in a high grade of drunkenness. In the place where this was
happening, a soldier addressed himself to compañero JULIAN SANCHEZ,
and demanded that he direct himself to a dark place remote from the main
road, to which JULIAN refused to walk. Subsequently, the soldier physically
and verbally attacked him, while the rest of the Colombian State military
unlatched and loaded the arms they were commissioned. Seeing the
situation of brutal aggression on the part of these soldiers, GERARDO
BARON AVIRAMA identified himself as a human rights defender and made
known that, as members of the state forces, they must have the training and
knowledge of the Human Rights material, as much the Military Forces as the
Police. He asked them where they were taking him [JULIAN] and he
demanded that they cease attacking him physically. The soldiers
proceeded to hit him repeatedly in the arms and chests and verbally
attacked GERARDO BARONA AVIRAMA and to say that they were taking
JAMES BARONA AVIRAMA. But finally, after so much verbal and physical
aggression, they let the three arbitrarily detained persons go.
3. SUNDAY, JANUARY 4, 2009, compañero DIEGO RICARDO RASEDO
GUEVARA, member of the Agrarian Association of Santander—ASOGRAS,
was disappeared from the urban center of Sabana de Torres and found
murdered the 7th
day of January, 2009, in a farm near the Municipality of
Sabana de Torres with a death shot to the head.
4. THE DAY OF JANUARY 8TH, 2009, the woman, GLORIA RASEDO
GUEVARA, mother of DIEGO RICARDO RASEDO GUEVARA, was the
object of various verbal threats from unknown persons, where they made it
know that she must abandon her town unless she wanted to run into the
same luck as her son.
5. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2009, La Cominera village, La Dominga
farm, Municipality of Palmira, Department of Cauca, around 5:30 in the
afternoon, FRANCISCO JAVIER CAPERA REMISO, with the identity
number of 5.972.550 from Ortega Tolima, member of the Pro Constitution
Association of Reserva Campesina Zone of the Municipality of Corinto,
member of FENSUAGRO-CUT, found himself in the company of his son,
ANDRES CAPERA PRADA, a minor of 10 years of age, undertaking
outdoor work clearing and sowing blackberries. He [FRANCISCO] was hit
by shards from an explosive artifact. Subsequently he was carried to the
municipal hospital and there was remitted to the Valle de Lili Foundation
Clinic, in the city of Cali. He was diagnosed with multiple traumas from the
explosives, with fractures, hematomas, and damage to the facial skin tissue.
He was incapacitated for 30 days. It is fitting to note that in the zone where
these incidents occurred, there is the permanent presence of the National
Army belonging to the Engineers Battalion No. 3 “Augustín Codazzi” and of
a provisional military detachment of the Infantry Battalion No. 8, “Pichincha
Battalion”. The Military groups carry out constant operations.
6. Friday, January 16, 2008, Barrio el Mirador, around 5:30 in the afternoon,
in the moments that the Compañero ARLED SAMBONI GUACA,
identification number 16.932.895 from Popayán, member of the Campesino
Workers Association de Argelia, ASCAMTA, affiliate of FENSUAGRO-CUT,
in the moment that he was receiving a visit from his father, JOSE RODRIGO
SAMBONI, ARLED SAMBONI GUACE went out of his house in the
company of his six year old son to go to a commercial establishment to
make a phone call. ARLED noticed two individuals were following him. He
accelerated his pace and tried to return to his residence, but was
intercepted by the two subjects who were following him, and they shot him
repeatedly with a firearm, hitting him with seven bullets in various parts of
his body. Three shots were to the side of his head, killing him instantly. The
cruelest of all is the drama and the psychological trauma caused to his six
year old son who saw his father brutally murdered. It should be noted that
ARLED, in the month of September, 2008, had been threatened and forcibly
displaced with his immediate family by the Narco-paramilitaries calling
themselves the “Rastrojos” (Translators Note: Weeds). The father of
ARLED, JOSE RODRIGO SAMBONI, who is presently the Financial Officer
of the Campesino Workers Association of the Municipality of Argelia,
ACAMTA, also in the month of September, 2008, was threatened and
forcibly displaced with his immediate family by the Rastrojos. The same day
that ARLED was murdered, in the evening hours, his wife, SANDRA
JIMENA BASTIDAS, received a telephone call in which unknown persons
told her, “It is better that you keep quiet, if you do not want the same thing to
happen to you.”
7. SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 2008, Barrio el Mirador, in the morning hours,
the citizen SANDRA JIMENA BASTIDAS, identification number
34.315.769, from Popayán, received anew a telephone call in which
unknown persons said to her, “It is better that you keep quiet, if you do not
want the same thing to happen to you.” In the month of September, 2008,
she had been forcibly displaced by Narco-paramilitaries calling themselves
the Rastrojos, along with her husband ARLED SAMBONI GUACA and their
two young sons of six and eight years respectively. Now she must confront
this situation alone and see the absurd psychological trauma that they made
for her son to see how he was ripped out of the hands of his father,
murdered in cold blood by criminals who openly parade about in the
presence of the military in this zone.
WE DEMAND THAT THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
1. Immediately initiate the process of investigation of the assassinations of the
compañeros ADOLFO TIQUE, DIEGO RICARDO RASEDO GUEVARA,
ARLED SAMBONI GUACA, who were murdered by unknown persons.
2. Investigate concerning the threats to the victims’ families.
3. Investigate concerning the deeds that have generated displacement,
persecution, threats, and murders of our affiliates, leaders, and directors of
FENSUAGRO.
WE ASK OF THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
1. Call on the national government to guarantee the life, physical and
psychological integrity, and the right to stay in their territory for our leaders and
affiliates, and to freely exercise union and organizational activity.
2. Reject these types of actions that cause the mourning of the social, labor, and
popular organizations, since their goal is to sow terror in the campesino
communities, that are victims of the development and implementation of
“Democratic Security” (“Segurdiad Democratica”)*.
3. Continue following and monitoring the grave situation of human rights violations
that cross through the Departments of Cauca, Tolima, and Santander.
AIDEE MORENO IBAGUE
SERCRETARIA NACIONAL DE DERECHOS HUMANOS
FENSUAGRO – CUT
COLOMBIA
*: “Seguridad Democrática” or “Democratic Security” is the policy being pursued by the
administration of Colombian Pres. Alvaro Uribe to achieve “security” in Colombia through
aggressive military action and repression rather than through good faith negotiations to end the civil
war. The process has led to widespread abuses, including the displacement of millions of farming,
indigenous, and Afro-Colombian communities, an increase in the murders of these populations and
of union members (the hardest hit being the FENSUAGRO union of farmers and farm workers), and
the widespread scandal of “false positives”, wherein Colombian military personnel frequently
commit arbitrary arrests (there are over 7,200 political prisoners in Colombian jails) and murders of
innocent persons, and then dress the cadavers in guerrilla uniforms or otherwise “identify” them as
insurgents, seeking to fill quotas demanded by the government to give the impression of progress in
the war. Especially during the past year, such scandals have resulted in the excavation of a mass
grave of “false positives” in Soaca, Colombia as well as several other cases of extra-judicial killings
that have led to the firing and the arrests of some military personnel. Unaffected, however, are
those highest up on the chain of command, including Pres. Uribe, who is known to have extensive
ties to paramilitaries and narco-traffickers. During these years of the Uribe Administration and the
policy of “Democratic Security”, murders of unionists have increased by 70% and forced
displacements by 40%. For those of us in the US, it is important to note that our government
maintains a close alliance with Pres. Uribe and gives over $600 million a year to the Colombian
military. Pres. Obama has spoken out publicly against the abuses committed against unionists in
Colombia. However, he has also said that the close relationship of the US and Colombia, including
its military support, will continue along the same path as before under his administration.
